Miharo Marlon!

Thursday 26 June

After a lovely 4 nights at Kaka Point in the Catlins, we packed up and drove back to Dunedin through calmer weather and via Milton and Waihola.

First stop was Molyneux Bay, just over the other side of Kaka Point - the display boards showing the history of this area were full of tales and photos of when this bay had been a harbour for the Gabriel's Gulley gold rush and Kaitangata coal/black gold rush of the nineteenth century, as it was on the estuary of the Clutha River. A major flood in 1878 shifted the river mouth several kilometres down the coast, effectively cutting off the Port and making it redundant.

Driving inland along the Clutha, the air around us was misty and damp creating ghostly, hazy vistas.

We fueled up in Milton, and spotted this stunning turquoise 1956 Chevy Belair basking gloriously in the sunshine of the tractor dealer next door - weird! Milton is a fun wee town with a tradition of colourful murals on many of the shops and walls - no prizes for guessing what store hides behind these walls.

Passing Waihola the lake was still as can be with the most gorgeous reflections beyond the railway and Clutha Gold Trail cycle track.

Reaching Dunedin not long after noon, we parked up at the usually dark & dank NZMCA in the same spot we’d left a few days earlier, but this time there was sunshine! ☀️

Louis whizzed off for a swim and I grabbed a snack lunch then walked up the Ross Creek Pathway to the Reservoir - and staggered back down a very steep street or two.

Did some chores then had a quick veggie pasta for dinner, popped on our Sunday best and drove into town to see Marlon Williams at the Regent Theatre. Realised during a quick pre-gig drinkies that it was Cari's birthday so had a lovely zoom call with her from the chill of a Dunedin winter evening to the warmth of a French summer morning in the Perigord.

Kommi, a performer, mentor to Marlon, composer, lecturer in indigenous studies opened the show with his wahine colleague Tay Renee - galloping rap songs in te reo telling tales of cultural oppression with black comedic asides. We may not have understood the words, but the meaning was clear and the distaste for "Rawiri Seymour" and his colleagues was generally applauded.

For the main event, Marlon took the stage, a tall, gangling figure in the spotlight who commanded the stage and took us on a journey with him through his passion for Māori culture, kotahitanga and manaakitanga. It was an amazing gig - such a talented and stunning man. He’s spent four years exploring his Māori background, relearning te reo Māori as he was never really brought up with the language, and under Kommi's mentorship he created an incredible best selling album Te Whare Tīwekaweka - all the songs in te reo. Ka mau te wehi!